My grandfather on father's side was a native of Wales; he immigrated to
America when a small boy, before the Revolutionary War. My grandmother
on father's side was a native of Germany. She also came to America a
small girl before the Revolution. Very soon after the war they were
married in the State of Pennsylvania and emigrated to East Tennessee,
then called the Territory of North Carolina. They settled on the waters
of the Folachucky river, in a section of country that afterwards became
Cock county. There they raised the following family: John Reed, my
father; Rhoda Reed, who married Gabriel Holder; Robert Reed, who went to
Georgia a single man and the family heard no more of him; Jesse Reed,
who died before he was grown; Eliza Reed, who went to Kentucky, and
there married and raised a large family; Nancy Reed, who married John
Worth, my mother's brother, and they remained in Cock county until their
death; George W. Reed, who was still in Cock county the last I heard of
him; Elizabeth Reed, who married Zachariah McCone, they went to
Kentucky; Margaret Reed, who married Tilchmond Buckner and went to
Kentucky. My grandfather Reed died in Cock county when I was about 20
years old; my grandmother Reed then went to Kentucky to some of her
children, a very old lady; that is the last I ever heard of her. This
is about all I know of my father's family connection. My grandmother's
maiden name I never heard as I recollect of.
My grandfather and grandmother on father's (should be mother's) side were both natives of
Wales. The(y) immigrated to America when they were both small, before the
French war with the American Colonies, and my grandfather Thomas Worth,
was in the battle of Braddock's defeat; after that he was with
Washington through the whole of the Revolutionary struggle. At the
close of the war he returned to Craven county, N.C. near Newbern, and
remained there until my mother was nearly grown; then he removed to Cock
county, Tenn. and settled on French Broad river, but staid there only a
few years, when he moved to Buncombe county, N.C. and there remained
till his death. He died when I was quite small; I can just recollect
seeing him. I can't give the names of all his children according to
age, but I can give their names and locality; the oldest son, Thomas
Worth, left his father in North Carolina, and went to Maryland where he
married, and from there he moved to New York, from whom sprang Gen.
Worth, of Mexican war notoriety. Louis Worth went to Tennessee and
married a widow Mucelhang, and moved west of the Mississippi river
before the cession of Louisiana to the United States, which was the last
ever heard of him by our family; John Worth married my father's sister
as before stated. The girls names and marriage are as follow: Sitnah
married a man by the name of Richmond and he died, and she married Thos.
Love; she died without children. Rebecca Worth married John Durham and
moved to Kentucky and from there to Limestone county, ?. Elizabeth
Worth married Elijah Durham, brother of John, and moved to Kentucky;
Delilah Worth married Thomas Craig and moved to Virginia; Susanah Worth
married Thos. McMullen and moved to Stone river, Tennessee; Nancy Worth,
my mother, married John Reed, my father, in Cock Co., Tenn., and
remained but a short time and moved to Buncombe county, N.C. where I was
born, Feb. the 2d 1805, they staid there but a short time and went back
to Cock county, Tenn., and remained there until my father's death in
May, 1807, leaving my mother with two little boys, my brother, near 5
years older, and myself, all that was living of 5 children. My mother
remained a widow about 4 years, and married a man by the name of John
Martin, by whom she had 13 children of whom only five ever sucked, 1 boy
and 4 girls were raised. I know but little about them; I had moved from
that County to Blount county, about 75 miles from there and only went to
see her twice till her death. She died at about 65 years of age; her
mother lived to be about 112 or 115 years of age. I left my stepfather
and mother at the age of 16 years, and have shifted for myself ever
since. On the 13th of October, before I was 20 years old, I was married
to Sally Cox, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Cox; we remained in
Jefferson Co. Tenn. 3 years and in which time we had one child; it lived
4 months and died. We then moved to Roan county and staid one year;
there Malinda was born; then we moved to Blount county and staid there 5
years; there Luther and Mary Elizabeth were born; Mary only lived to be
three months old. Then in the Fall of 1833 we moved to the State of
Missouri to Cole county; in 1833 my wife had another daughter, and it
died the day after it was born, and my wife died four days afterwards,
and I was left, not able to walk across the house, with two little
children in a land of strangers, except two brothers-in-law. I remained
unable to do anything for seven months. I then took a school for eight
months, at the end of that time I married Delilah Martain, daughter of
Louis Martain, and she lived one year, three months and three days, in
which time she had a son, and on the 7th day of April 1837 she died, and
left me with three little children, one only two months old. My trouble
was so great that it did not seem to me that I could stay in that
country. In September, '37, I gathered all together, and left my
children with their uncle, and went to Texas and traveled over much of
that country and returned to Arkansas and wintered there. In the Spring
I sold my horse, bridle and saddle in Little Rock, took passage on a
steamboat and went back to Missouri. I staid but a short time, become
disgusted with a country that had bereaved me of all that I held dear.
(except my children) I left it again and made my way to the western
frontier of Arkansas, and plunged into the dark forest of the Indian
country, and passed by the wigwams of the Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek
tribes of Indians, seeking for something to soothe the mind, but all in
vain. There was a vacuum that could not be filled among the children of
the forests, so I returned to civilization again, staid five months in
Arkansas, then went to Missouri to my brothers, staid there a few weeks
and left for Memphis; there I staid a few days and sold my horse, bridle
and saddle and took passage of boat to New Orleans; staid there a short
time and returned to Baton Rouge, staid there four weeks at five dollars
a day. I then left with the intention of going to Biloxi, but changed
my notion and started for Jackson, Miss., got to Copiah county, there
stopped and went to work, and after three years travail, and spending
about thirteen hundred dollars, I began to meditate upon what I had done
and what I was doing, and came to the conclusion that I could not live
that way any longer. I then commenced looking around and found that the
only plan to put a stop to my raving, was to marry again. So, I came to
that determination and did so on the 28th day of July 1840. I married
the daughter of Samuel and Tabitha Miller, & remained there nearly two
years; then I moved to Choctaw county, where, after a little over three
years, I made every preparation to go to Missouri after my children,
which I did in the winter of 1845, and have remained in Choctaw ever
since; and by my last wife who is still living with me, I have become
the father of thirteen children of whom there is only 9 living now.
I have written this to be left with my other papers, so that after I am
gone to that world from whence no traveler has returned, my children may
read it and have some knowledge of their origin, and of the trouble that
I have passed through in this world.
This the third day of June, 1866.
E.H. REED
-(source? received from Cheryl Wright in 1999.)
(c) 1998, Jeff Carter